What is your favorite way to consume ebooks?

There is no shortage of ways to consume ebooks. E-Readers tend to be the most popular among voracious readers because it is the closest you can get to mimcing real paper. Smartphones are in our pockets all of the time and they rely on apps and ditto with tablets, although they tend to be left at home. Some people also like reading on their laptop at school or work, others use cloud readers on their PC.

We are living in a world where it is easy to read ebooks, no matter what type of operating system or device you are using. Microsoft operates their Windows Store, where there is no shortage of comic and ebook apps currently available. Google Play and the Apple App Store tend to have the largest selection of app available. Not only are the most popular ones all there, like Kindle, Nook or Kobo. But there is a myriad of alternatives such as Aldiko, FBReader, Moon+ Reader and so on. No matter what type of books you like to read, there is an app for that. There has even been a rise of serialized fiction and text message stories, ala Amazon Rapids.

The big question, what is your favorite way to consume ebooks? e-Readers, Smartphones, tablets, computers? Do you use specific apps to read on? Your feedback will help influence our coverage in the new year.

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times.

I bought my first ebook in 2009 just to see how I would like reading on my iPhone. But for the rare book that isn’t available as an ebook, I’ve never looked back.

Until last month, I read all of my ebooks on my iPhone 8 Plus, using both the Kindle app and the Apple Books app (formerly iBooks). I’d tried reading many times on an iPad Mini, but I never found it very comfortable to hold the iPad Mini for long stretches of time due to the weight of the device and the narrow bezels along the sides of the screen.

Last month, I finally bought my first eReader, the Kindle Paperwhite 4. Shortly thereafter, I also purchased a Kobo Clara HD when it went on sale at Walmart for only $99. I’m really happy with both devices, even though neither of them is perfect, and both devices have pros and cons. So, I now read ebooks purchased from Amazon on my Kindle Paperwhite 4, and epub books from sources other than Amazon on my Kobo Clara HD.

All that being said, I still use my iPhone for reading when I’m away from the house. Also, the iPhone continues to be the best option for reading in the dark in bed so that I’m not disturbing my wife. Even though the Kindle Paperwhite now has an option for switching to white letters on a dark background, it’s still brighter in the dark than an iPhone set to white letters on a black screen.

Finally, I want to thank Michael for the great website!

Nicholas Shadid

Please don’t use the word “consume” in this context. A site dedicated to the written word shouldn’t be complicit in the disintegration of language at the hands of the business and marketing communities.

kfg

Synonym for the metaphorical idiom: eat up, which is also used for such phenomena as rusting which renders a scarce commodity (such as an object or person of particular desire) unusable.

However I will note that Michael isn’t actually deriving the word from that. He got his use from industry, who got it from economics. Just as many average people now do with the word “franchise” where it makes no damned sense at all.

Perhaps I was being a bit of a grammar nazi, but not in the ordinary sense. My bugbear isn’t grammar, per se, but the use of dehumanizing technical jargon of the supply side to actual human beings, often by those human beings, who do not actually understand the meaning of the term, themselves.

And throwing in a side order of pointing out to the demand side that e-books are not an economic consumable. Unlike a printed book, a physical object manufactured from raw materials, the scarcity of e-books is entirely artificial. When you download an e-book, you make it less scarce. There are now more of it than there were before. Files of public domain works now have zero commercial value, unlike in my pre-digital youth where considerable consumption was still required to produce and distribute them.

I have no objections to the phrase, “He consumed her with his eyes.”

The phrase “Consumption of e-books is up this year” is vile, although in this case it is business misusing an economics term (not that the economists don’t do it either these days).

Purchase is not “consumption.” This is not a trivial matter. Understanding it is key to understanding the modern, digital world and your place in it.

Take an example from fiction: in Star Trek: The Original Series, on the Enterprise nothing was economically consumed, not even food. Thus everything was “free,” obtained without trade, because no artificial scarcity was applied. If you needed something you pushed a button and effectively unlimited energy drove a device that produced what you desired from effectively unlimited mass.

E-books, in and of themselves, don’t even require mass to produce. We are, technologically with regards to data, living in the Star Trek economic world. Digital things are infinitely reproducible with effectively zero consumption. The more you use them, the more of them there are.

Which is why scarcity business models, like print publishing, hate it. I do not consume the words of Charles Dickens, I manufacture the words of Charles Dickens. Effectively beyond control and limit in either quantity or distribution.

My reader of choice is the Kindle Oasis. It has slightly smaller dimensions than the other Kindles (Paperwhite, etc.) so it fits in my handbag for travel. If I’m headed anywhere with a waiting room or if I’m planning on eating alone, it comes with me and keeps me completely entertained. When I mess up and forget to take it, I can use my phone but the reading experience isn’t that great. For Nook books, I generally read them on my laptop even though I have a couple of old Nooks lying around — they just never got the human interface right IMO. I have to admit I’ve gorged on the kool-aid and consider it a serious negative if a book isn’t available as an ebook.

Rita Ihly

I am 90, female, and have loved to read all my life. Fiction, non-fiction, all of it! Given an outstanding library, and my reluctance to drive more than necessary, I have found refuge in downloading e-books and audio-books from our library. I have a very basic Kindle Paperwhite, no need for bells and whistles. I can’t afford to buy all the books I want to read, yet I have access to current books. Get on a waiting list, yes, but eventually I get the book!!! Love It!!

Heidi Steindel

I like my Oasis the most and I always read on my bed next to my parakeets I also like to go to my library where there is a coffee bar and read and have a latte. I would love to do this at a starbucks but lets face it. They are too crowded to be able to really enjoy yourself let alone find a free comfy chair. I also like to go tot the starbucks at B&N on the right day crowd is minimal and I can enjoy myself. I have a Kobo Aura one and H2O but I find I like my Oasis the best. I just wish it had the awesome battery life of my kobos. I would like to get an ipad mini to read all my kobo,kindle,nook on but cant afford it. I have an ipad pro but do not like reading on a screen over 9″

Sportbike Mike

How I prefer to read ebooks in order by preference
1. Kindle Oasis 2
2. Nook Glowlight 3 – for night and early morning
3. Moto g5 Plus Android Smartphone
4. Fire HD8
5. Onyx Boox n96ml – pretty much for school text books only
.
.
.
100. Computer or Laptop Screen (seriously, half of those other devices I own mainly to avoid reading on a computer screen. Sometimes I even “send to Kindle” articles from this site if they are too long.)

X Ray

Kobo Forma. Expensive but worth for the bug-free & accomodating Kobo firmware relative to Kindle AND its awesome hardware features.

Kansas City on the Country Club Plaza, plaza branch. The bar is at the entrance and they allow you to take it into the library with you. library has a panoramic view too. Directly outside literally is a Chipolte, The Mixx (vegetarian ) and a Yogertini. lol Great.!

Chris Mullin

Kobo Forma AND Kindle Oasis. Some days one system has a book cheaper than the other. Also, I mostly put different kinds of books on Kobo and Kindle. I prefer the Kobo interface, but I look for reviews on Kindle, because there are so many more reviews there. If I’m getting books for the lady I live with, I get Kindle books because she does not use Kobo.